Topic: RIP - the floppy disk is dying.

[Rik]

The Telegraph reports that the end of the floppy is in sight.

The floppy disk, which has been around since the early days of home computing, is finally being killed off by Sony.
 
The Japanese electronics manufacturer, which last year sold well over 12 million of the devices, has announced it will stop making floppy disks next year, leaving no serious manufacturer in the market place.

The decision is the final nail in the coffin for floppies, which since they were first developed in 1971 have helped consumers store documents, pictures and data on an easy to use format.

However, in recent years, the limited storage on most floppies compared with how much data can be stored on a CD or a USB memory stick has meant they have become increasingly obsolete.

The most recent floppy disks have a maximum storage capacity of 2 megabytes though most had less. This compared with the 4 or even 8 gigabytes consumers can now buy on a standard USB stick – 2,000 or 4,000 times the size of the largest floppy.

It really is the end of an era.

[Simon]

Can't remember when I last used one. 

[Rik]

I started out with 5.25" ones holding 160k, which took forever to format. Browsers use to come on floppies!

[Simon]

They can be handy as boot disks, if all else fails. 

[Rik]

Indeed. I still have a USB one just in case,

[Clive]

I still have a floppy drive on my computers but my next one won't.   

[sam]

we had to use one the other day cause the cdrom drive was broken on one of the servers and we needed to update the bios!!! luckily we found an old laptop with a drive!